Meat + Poultry - April 2005 - 25

Equipment

CAMotion and Georgia Tech Univ.'s
FOOD PAC engineers. The robot can
be ratcheted up for throughput in excess of 120 trays per minute by changing the tooling. What was ultimately
developed is known as a Case-Ready
Pack-off system, which was tested at
an Excel plant in Newnan, Ga. The
robots are now being considered by
other meat and poultry processors.
CAMotion robots are about to be
installed for testing at a large poultry
plant, Ross says.
Some of the nuances they've had to
overcome with their robots have included being able to differentiate different
packing patterns depending on the box
or container as well as appropriately
handling film-wrapped products.
Part of the challenge of incorporating robots into the meat packing part
of the plant is overcoming the harsh
washdown environment. There have
been washdown-resistant robots available in the past, but with price tags
approaching $100,000, they haven't
been widely utilized in processing
plants. Ross says he's also surprised
by the widespread expectation of
R.O.I. within one year. "The food
industry is challenging," he says, but
"robotically speaking, the food industry is an untapped market, and more
people are getting into it."
"Technology has to be flexible, fast
and cost effective to fit the different applications that exist in plants," Ross says.
Robots are showing up in other
parts of meat and poultry plants, but
their use are limited. "Some 'dropins' or islands of automation are
beginning to appear in plants where
specific automated solutions are put
into an existing production line," says
Ross. "Over time, as more integrators
begin to notice this huge industry and
its needs, entire lines will be designed
and implemented. Automation gives
users a way to measure themselves
and make improvements in process
and quality control, which improves

MEAT&POULTRY

April 2005

productivity. I think some people see
the value in that."
But it's toward the end of the line,
where many operations utilize reusable plastic totes, which present the
most opportunities for robotic technology. "There is a hole at the end of
the line that needs to be addressed,"
Ross says. Therein lays the opportunity for robotic technology. "Previously, there has been a solution of
throwing people at the case packaging
problem," says Ross, but robotics can
change all that.
Similar to some processing equipment, CAMotion's CRP 1000 CaseReady Packer also uses a vision system
and performs several quality inspections
on case-ready trays, such as assuring
products are labeled properly and overwrap is applied on trays correctly.
Big-picture perspective
Jeff Walker, technical manager of
the Packaging Equipment Center for
Cryovac's Food Packaging Division
of Sealed Air Corp., based in Duncan,
S.C., says food safety is a leading
trend among equipment makers. The
American Meat Institute's sanitary
design standards for processing
equipment has triggered safer designs
and a recommitment from suppliers to do their part in keeping plants
cleaner and food safer. "Customers
that are in the ready-to-eat market
have raised the standard in terms of
what they're willing to accept from a
hygiene standpoint. We've upgraded
the design of several of our machines
over the past year or so to address that
market segment."
One of the challenges of making
equipment easier to access and clean
is keeping the operator and cleaning
personnel safe. As more spinning parts
and blades are accessed and exposed
during the cleaning and operation of
the equipment, worker safety must also

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be considered. "It's not always an easy
feat, because you can't sacrifice operator safety or personal safety over the
hygiene issue," Walker says. "But you
also have to make sure you have a machine that is accessible for cleaning."
Similar to equipment designs
throughout processing plants, automation is becoming a common goal at
Cryovac, but Walker adds, "We're automating, but as a part of that we're incorporating more self-diagnostic features,"
such as machines with help screens that
troubleshoot problems for customers.
In terms of the importance of speed,
Walker says plant operators can put
too much emphasis on the number of
products that churn through their line.
Often, faster equipment can resolve a
bottleneck in one part of a plant but
create another one down the production line. Walker says keeping the
entirety of the operation in mind is
required to avoid solving one problem
and creating another.
He also stresses the importance
of flexibility in machinery. Cryovac
machines electronically switch from
one product type to the next, so that
as products change on a line, a couple
of keystrokes notifies the machine
of the new parameters. Adjustments
are made automatically rather than
moving machinery around to accommodate a new product line.
In terms of automation, Walker says
processors should look at their entire
process and identify where workers
are just moving product around and
not performing a value-added task.
More processors are offering products in various sizes, and packaging
equipment needs to be able to transition from one to the next as smoothly
and quickly as possible. "That's a way
(customers) reach another market segment, and we have to be able to give
them the flexibility in a machine to
handle that," Walker says.
We would like to hear from you-your comments
and questions about this article are welcome. Email the author at: jcrews@sosland.com

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Meat + Poultry - April 2005

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